Chapter 10: Not Real—The Second Test

What happens to the wide-eyed observer when the window between reality and unreality breaks and the glass begins to fly?
~Author Unknown

Raenef was exhausted, almost like an itch that he was unable to reached because it was inside instead of outside. An itch that burned and twitched and wiggled—Raenef stuttered to a stop and pressed his left hand over his mouth and stopped the dry heave that nearly took over. Moaning to himself, he didn't bother to look to his bandaged hand. The memory of that… talon… finger… whatever it had been, it was so strong. So vivid, and his skin crawled and Raenef wanted to peel his skin away to rid himself of the feeling.

He was so tired though. The dreary landscape around him never changed. He wished he had bothered to look around more to his surroundings when he had been at the top of that large hill. But no, he had merely ran to the first thing he had seen and now even that was gone.

After fleeing the dagger, Raenef had just continued to move, to walk on and on. There was no end to this… place. If it even was a place, Raenef was questioning where exactly he was. He had to be out of his domain considering that he couldn't use his powers. Or, at least he couldn't use his powers without the incantations. Unfortunately he didn't honestly know the lengthy incantations. Or, he didn't know them to the point where he wanted to risk saying them. Raenef wasn't going to blow himself to bits just to try something.

But maybe if he was desperate.

Maybe.

The adrenalin had faded off to numbness, he couldn't really feel much anymore. His fears had dulled and if Raenef really dared to think of it, he could almost say he was getting used to his place with it's endless fog and twisted trees. He sighed and continued to stumble on. He needed to find the second test, he was assured already that those demon fodder worms were the first test so he needed to find what was next.

He needed to finish the last two tests and then he could go home. He would sleep with Eclipse in his arms after this disaster was over. He would get to hug and cuddle and pet; Raenef hardly cared if anyone saw the goofy look on his face. He would get Chris to hug him too, and Erutis, and his Aunt Petunia and he would convince Dudley to sneak him a large piece of cake at midnight and they would feast together.

The thought of food upset his delicate stomach, but Raenef was plotting for it all the same. He was going to indulge in comfort after this. He would indulge for a full solid week and do nothing but cuddle and eat and relax and play sick so his Aunt would flutter even more attention on him. Raenef rubbed his right forearm lightly as he came to a stop.

The landscape had changed.

Shaking his head to clear his daydreams out (or were they just dreams, was it even day?) and he took a good look around himself. The ground had turned flat, looking down at his feet as he shifted them, he watched a soft haze of dirt drift upward. Of course, with the loose topsoil moved Raenef could see the cracked ground underneath his feet. Suddenly the air was dryer and harder to take in and he was breathing faster just to get more oxygen.

Twisting his face in to a look full of distaste, Raenef looked at the treeless land ahead of himself. It didn't go on for forever, or if it did, Raenef couldn't see it going on in to forever because the fog had become so thick that it was cut off from his view.

Raenef waited a long moment before starting forward. He was going in to a place where he couldn't see too far ahead or around himself in any direction. He grew tense and he made sure to keep sharply out of his daydreams. It was hard, no; it was impossible to be anything but jumpy in this place that went on beyond where he could see.

Keeping his right arm tucked in to his body, Raenef trudged along.

It was a long time before he saw anything besides dust and fog.

The fog had receded a bit, at least enough so that he could see the area around him a bit more. He was on some kind of hard packed dirt road that stretched seemingly five cars across side by side. He couldn't really see beyond that considering that lining both sides of the road he had mindlessly and unknowingly walked on were mirrors.

They were tall things that seemed to stretch on in to eternity because the fog was above him and stopped him from seeing the sky and where the mirrors went. The mirrors were buried in to the ground and Raenef didn't stop to dig in the ground to see how far they were in. He just wanted to get out of this place that never seemed to end and were filled with not only monsters, but at this point this land was filled with memories Raenef didn't want to keep.

Raenef idly watched himself as he walked by. The mirrors were seemingly melded together with bronze colored frames. The melted metal stopped him from seeing beyond the mirrors, like a giant wall. The metal lines between the mirrors made a break in the mirrors so when he looked in one, he could see all of the other mirrors on the other side that were reflected right back. If he stood in front of two that happened to line up on both sides it looked like he went on forever.

It had been something new at first and Raenef had approached and wandered amongst the mirrors in wonder. Then they had grown old and Raenef didn't want to see them anymore. He preferred the fog surrounding him so that it looked like he wasn't in a confined space. Was there a roof over his head? He couldn't be sure and the not knowing was slowly starting to drive him crazy. It started as a twitch, and turned in to a feeling in this gut and finally Raenef was just sick of it altogether.

Ignoring the mirrors and multitudes of himself, Raenef trudged on, keeping his injured arm close to his side as he did so. The fog still existed, more distant then before but it was still there and Raenef wanted this silly test to end. What was he even doing? There were just mirrors. With a suffering sigh, Raenef turned his head to the left and looked dully at the mirrors.

The vast change in the mirror to his left startled him. He didn't see himself reflected, or even the mirrors behind himself. It was as if he was looking at a television screen on some type of travel program. The mirror reflected a forest, winding grey-brown tree trunks and lush greenery. There were no animals in sight but the view of it all was very much alive. Raenef didn't know when he had drifted over to it, but soon the fingers of his left hand brushed the cool surface of the metal that was the mirror.

He stared at it for a long time and wished he could hear what was going on inside it. Anything would be better then the ringing silence of the fog world that he was currently inhabiting. Letting his eyes drift a bit to the right, Raenef stared in to another mirror and watched a fish swim by in an endless blue that had to be water. A mirror to his left showed nothing but blackness littered with shining, winking white dots.

Raenef gapped at them all for a long moment. He hadn't noticed when the mirrors changed, but now that they showed something other then endless mirrors, he couldn't stop looking at them. It took him a long time before he drifted off from the mirrors that were around him and he continued down the road, glancing right and left to see what else there was in the mirrors.

A living room of a household.

A magnified glimpse of grass and bugs.

The ocean. He had never seen the ocean before. Raenef almost couldn't pull himself away from watching the waters crash against the beach in a never-ending ripple.

Raenef lost count of how many things he saw, and by the time he reached a almost normal mirror, he had gotten used to the images that he saw in them. He stopped in front of a mirror that showed the other mirrors that were behind him, but suspiciously the mirror didn't show him. Raenef reached out and pressed his hands against the cool glass and pushed, half wishing that it was just a simple door way in some kind of fun house that he could step through.

A pair of hands jerked out if the mirror in front of Raenef, grabbing Raenef's neck even as the rest of the body pushed out of the mirror and slammed the Demon Lord in training on to the ground. Upon impact, Raenef squeezed his eyes shut as all the breath left his lungs, his hands automatically reaching up to grasp the ones around his neck.

For the few seconds it took for Raenef to open his eyes again, he could swear it was that man with the too big hands and the grip that wouldn't let him breath—Raenef was choking, choking, choking! Raenef dug the nails of his good hand down the hands around his throat, expecting it to be futile. He expected gloves that were like stone and instead found the hands were fleshy and small and even with them around his throat he could still breath because they weren't big enough and they weren't even squeezing that hard.

Raenef bucked, his eyesight was hazy with disorientation as he pushed the other body that wasn't much bigger then his own, off of him. He scrambled and threw his body on top of the other.

His eyes cleared and he looked down at his attack.

And choked.

"Chris…?" It couldn't be Chris. Chris was human, and he couldn't be in another realm that was manipulated by another Lord. Perched on top of Chris's stomach, Raenef watched the other boy shake his head, he must have hit it on the ground. Maybe the other boy had been taken as well.

They locked eyes. And Raenef knew something was wrong with the other. He used both hands to reach out and touch Chris's face only for Chris to reach out and yank on his hair. Crying out, Raenef's hands flew to his head; it felt like his skull was being yanked off. The world spun as Chris pulled the other off and dragged Raenef up and on to his feet by his hair. "Chris! Chris, please stop it! This hurts." His head hurt, his hand hurt, and the other's hands had dug themselves deep in to his hair and he kept pulling! Although, his protests only got another yank on his hair.

"Shut up!" It sounded like Chris! It had to be him!

Raenef cried out as Chris roughly slammed him in to a mirror before pulling Raenef back and doing it again. Raenef bit his tongue on the third go and flailed his arms out to try and hit the other boy. On the forth go he shot his leg out and took Chris's knee out, sending them both sprawling to the floor with Chris's hands still knuckle deep in Raenef's abused hair. The world was spinning and his eyes were going out of focus now, "Chris, let go. Why are you hurting me?" Raenef knew he was being pitiful, but Chris was his friend!

Was his friend—was this the final result of Chris losing his memories?

A flash of white-hot pain erupted from the back of his head and his vision went white for a moment. And he realized that Chris was leaning over him, grinding Raenef's head in to the ground with all his weight behind it. "Why wouldn't I?" Chris's face was marked with a vicious snarl, and his eyes were still strange and they were nothing like they were supposed to be.

His gut tightened and Raenef felt sick.

"Demons are evil!" Chris cried out, slamming Raenef's head back in to the ground again, this time the flash of white stayed longer then the first time. "You are a demon!" Raenef cried out in protest, trying to stop the way the other boy was so casually tossing him around. "You're evil!"

"I'm going to kill you!" Chris yanked one of his hands out of Raenef's hair, pulled more then a fair amount of it out as he did it. With the free hand he scrabbled around in the dirt while Raenef reeled from the pain that had erupted on his skull. Moaning and clutching at the remaining hand, Raenef weakly moved on the ground. He was in so much pain, why was he in so much pain? He wasn't too sure, but he was just in a lot of it.

Chris found what he was looking for, a rock the size of his palm, very thick and smooth to the touch. He slammed it in to Raenef's chest. One hit, two—and the gravity of the situation fell in to Raenef's exhausted mind with the snap of a rib. Raenef screamed as he yanked his hands away from the hand holding his hair and head to the ground. Shooting his hands up, Raenef reached out and grasped on to Chris's face.

He knew this face so well. He could almost say he knew it better then Eclipse's own.

"I'm sorry!" Raenef scream joined Chris's as the boy dropped the rock and yanked his other hand out of Raenef's hair to rip at the hands that were digging in to the melting skin on his face. Raenef could feel the other burning and it was burning him and ripping his hands and he couldn't let go because he didn't want to die! He didn't want to die and Chris wasn't supposed to be the one trying to kill him and Raenef continue to scream his apologies as if that would block out the other boy's shrill screams of pure agony.

Chris's left eye boiled and popped, the juice spewing and flying over Raenef's face as he moved them so he was the one pushing the screaming and jerking Chris in to the ground.

The world blurred and Raenef didn't know where the strength to pin Chris came from, but with the other boy under him he could do more then just burn his face off. The other eye popped and if it was possible the scream got higher before his mouth melted together and it became a garble. Raenef sobbed, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" And he pushed and pushed and then Chris's skull finally gave and melted along with the boy's brain.

Raenef was thrown off of Chris's body in its death throes.

He scrambled away from the other's body until his back pressed against one of the mirrors and he watched the body move. Twisting and turning in its last moments. Without a brain, was Chris conscious for it? Raenef didn't know, but he really hoped his first friend wasn't conscious for it. Raenef shuddered and cradled both of his hands to his chest. Both of them were smoking and the one that was already injured felt like it was going to fall off.

The smell of burnt flesh was putrid and the whole area seemed filled with it.

For some reason, the tears wouldn't come and he couldn't feel too sad. He hoped it was partially painless.

But he had wanted to live.

Raenef stared at the body for a long time, breathing in death and recovering as much as he could while he had the chance. For a moment, he closed his eyes, lightly resting his aching skull against the mirror he was leaning against.

That couldn't have been Chris. Chris was too kind to try and hurt him. Even if Raenef was a demon, the other wouldn't go this far to hurt him. At least, not yet—each breath brought a sharp pain to his side that made it terribly hard to focus. Chris seemed like the type to turn away from him and ignore him. Even if he was a demon, even if… Raenef shivered.

That couldn't have been Chris. That was the only explanation. He had come from a mirror! There had to be some type of minor demon that could do this. Raenef opened his eyes and watched the other's body for a long moment. Willing the body to turn in to some type of demon now that he had killed it.

Chris's body didn't even twitch.

Taking a deep breath, Raenef didn't even choke on the smell anymore. Even if Chris's body didn't change, that didn't mean it had to be him. He had come out of a mirror. That had to be something important. He'd have to ask Eclipse when he got back. It just couldn't have been Chris. "Not real. This isn't real." Raenef's shaky voice turned firm as he stared at the corpse. "Its not really him." He spoke out loud to himself and the last of his faint tremors disappeared.

"It couldn't have been him. He can't be here too." Raenef nodded to himself.

"Only I made the deal so only I need to pass the tests." He felt a lot better. Of course that couldn't have been Chris! It had just been another worm! Raenef giggled for a few seconds, stopping only because it started to hurt. Of course it couldn't have been Chris, what was he, stupid? Stretching out his legs in front of himself, he continued to breath, smiling faintly as he continued to rest.

He tilted his head to the side and looked in to the mirror he was leaning against. He found that it was the mirror that the not-Chris had come out of. He blinked at it, only slightly surprised that he could finally see himself reflected in it's depths.

It was him, but at the same time it wasn't him. He looked at his hair and at his eyes and at the blood that was his and not his own. He stared for a long time before he closed his eyes and ignored the mirror.

That wasn't him.

The mirror was broken.

He avoided looking at the corpse for the rest of the time he sat there.

When he left, he picked up the rock that the not-Chris had found.

A few mirrors later, he bashed in Erutis's skull in with the rock.

A few mirrors more and Chris's father had his knees kicked out and his eyes gouged.

His Aunt's head was busted open on a mirror.

He kicked Dudley to death.

He strangled his uncle with his silk tie.

By the time Raenef had gone through three of his classmates from school, he didn't feel any regret over it whatsoever. He couldn't really remember where he had gotten a bat, he thought that the not-Erutis had been holding it while he had taken her down. Tackled her from behind and crashed the rock several times against the back of her skull.

Raenef swung the metal bat down on to the top of the head of a female classmate. He couldn't even remember her name but he watched her go down before delivering the final blow to her skull as she twitched on the floor.

He couldn't feel the pain anymore. That had to be bad but it was working for him. He eyed the handle of the baseball bat and found that bits of his skin had come off on the handle. There was blood everywhere. All over his clothes and face and leaking from his hands but he couldn't feel much for anything at the moment. Chanting to himself the same thing he had been after he left Chris, he matching his foot steps to the two words 'not real' and continued on his way.

He couldn't wait to get home. He bet Eclipse was missing him a lot.

He bludgeoned two more classmates to death before they stopped appearing.

And the mirrors were swallowed by fog.

Raenef's hands had been unable to grip the bat after so long, no matter how much he tried. It just kept slipping out so he ended up dropping the weapon and continuing on with nothing in his hands. He'd figure something out. He continued to walk, the dirt kicking up in his wake as he continued to walk and walk. Lidded eyes watched the world and it took a long, long time before he realized that he was out of the fog and the mirrors.

He glanced behind himself and only saw trees and greenery.

His eyes widened—there was live, green things all around him. Sure, the trees were sparse and the grass was half dead. But it was the most beautiful thing he had seen in a long, long time. Raenef felt his lips pull up in to a tired smile as he looked around. He blinked and grinned, seeing a castle not too far along. It might take him a while to get there because he was so tired, but he'd get there.

Raenef snorted to himself. Of course he'd past the tests. He could pass anything some little bastard fop could toss at him. Raenef, satisfied with himself, continued to walk along the dirt path made from compressed and dead grass. He had passed and it was time to go home to Eclipse to lick his wounds.

He briefly wondered about a third test before tossing it out of his mind. If the other demon couldn't count, that wasn't his problem.

He willed himself to go faster. He could faintly spot someone standing at the front of the castle.

His eyesight was blurry. More so then normal—Raenef dimly noted it as a bad sign to tell Eclipse. Things got extremely fuzzy and then clear and his sight moved back and forth between the two as he tried to examine his surroundings. His attention didn't last long with his inability to really see anything. So he continued to slowly make his way toward the figure that was waiting for him.

He had finally reached the castle!

He had gotten close enough to tell that it wasn't Krayon who was waiting for him. This person was all dark and pale, the exact opposite of the Demon Lord who had hurt him so much. Raenef would have to do something extremely painful in retribution before he ended the other Lord's life.

A few feet away from the man and he slowed to a stop.

The man has his back to him, but even he could tell the other was extremely tall. Even taller then his Uncle, and he Uncle was a tall man. Being of the short height of a child, Raenef didn't have much to compare so he instead inspected the rest of the man. He had on a black coat that shinned in the faint light that was out in this realm. It was pretty and Raenef was almost distracted by it. He looked to the man's long, long black hair that was in a slick ponytail.

Smiling faintly, Raenef stepped forward, damaged hands reaching out to touch the man's hair. But he had only taken two steps before the man turned around.

Raenef's mouth dropped open in amazement—this couldn't be none other then…

"Eclipse!" Raenef cried out, his lips cracking and bleeding with the strength of his smile and all the pain washed away with the feeling of home. A few more steps and the exhaustion wouldn't matter. A few more steps and the pain would end. The tears that had since stopped falling gathered in his eyes as he took in Eclipse's humanoid form for the first time in his life.

His skin was pale, like Raenef had judged from far away. All of the black that he wore seemed to swallow him up and it fit the other demon well. Raenef searched the man's face for the expected golden crescent moon that marked Eclipse as Eclipse. He found it as a dangling earring on the man's left ear. His cloak was held in place by a silver-white threaded rope that shinned and underneath the cloak was a black robe…

He'd try to very Eclipse's wardrobe.

Raenef smiled, holding up his arms. He was going to be held, instead of the one who did the holding. "Eclipse!" He couldn't get past the other's name. This was Eclipse, his Eclipse. The one who would remain his because he had won!

Raenef looked to the demon's violet eyes, expecting love and affection.

The cool aloofness stopped him in his tracks, arms still raised and his words from before echoed in his mind.

Not real.

"Through the suspended air within atoms and between the threads in the tapestry of time…" Raenef thought Eclipse's voice was beautiful. It was different from when he was a cat, it was smooth and rolling with power and he just wanted to hear more of it.

Not real…

Raenef sobbed. "Not real…"

…not real…

"Ignite!"

A river of spiraling flames flowed from his hands and rammed in to Raenef's chest. There was no time to scream because the air was on fire and he sucked it in upon impact and the pain came. He burned from the inside out and everything was hurt. Raenef flew through the air for several feet before landing on his pick and skidding head over heels in a crumpled, broken heap.

He couldn't breath. Everything hurt and he couldn't even make his body twitch. His body blinked automatically as he just stared at the ground that was in front of his face, sprawled out on his stomach as he was.

Over the beating of his heart and his rasping sobs and gasps he could hear it.

Step.

Step-step.

Step.

Step-step.

Eclipse's slow footsteps were a mockery of a heart beat at rest and Raenef's heart sped up in fear in response. That wasn't Eclipse, it was a not-Eclipse, here to try and kill him. He was a fool, he couldn't win. His body wasn't even moving anymore. He had broken himself.

He was ashamed—he couldn't even get past a second task.

He was rolled over on to his back by the not-Eclipse and Raenef's eyes automatically focused on the stolen form. Raenef trembled and Eclipse brought his hands together and started to chant. But Raenef couldn't hear it over the roar of his internal scream. He was going to die and Eclipse would be lost and serving that monster of a Demon Lord! His kind, gentle and fatherly Eclipse was going away from him!

He wished he had kept the dagger.

Maybe he would have had a chance.

Eclipse's hands glowed an angry red as they descended toward him.

Raenef forgot to breath, not like he'd be able to anyway.

It wasn't supposed to end like this. Never like this… The tears that he wanted to cry evaporated as they welled up. His vision was starting to tunnel down on to Eclipse's smooth, emotionless, terribly beautiful face and he was afraid yet not afraid—

If he had to die, then maybe it was a good thing this not-Eclipse was doing it.

"Let me in…" A voice, deep and powerful and sad, whispered under the rush of his heart in his ears. "Let me in…" The voice gently begged. "You've done enough…" Raenef felt his eyes falling shut. He was so tired, he couldn't even feel his lungs screaming for air anymore as smooth, soft fingers tightened around his throat.

"I'll ensure our survival, my dear one." Even the voice was growing faint.

"Rest now… let me in, let me in…"

Raenef wanted to see Eclipse again.

And then everything faded out and he cried his last regret, knowing no one would hear it.

Raenef's left hand rose from where it laid on the ground, pressing against not-Eclipse's forehead as golden eyes slowly slid open. No words were said, but the incantation that ran through his mind appeared. Not-Eclipse was obliterated with an ice spear through the head.

The hands grew slack and the Raenef who wasn't Raenef took a shallow breath, grimacing at the pain of his slightly burned lungs. He shifted out of the way as not-Eclipse's corpse slumped over and he pushed himself up on to unsteady feet, only to fall back down to the ground. He struggled to push himself up and each time he was met with failure and each struggle pulled more of his precious energy out of his nonexistent reserves.

Golden eyes glared angrily down at his charred hands, gasping for each painful breath and struggling to just survive. His arms gave way and he pressed his face in to the dirt, still breathing hard. He had made it an arms width away from not-Eclipse's corpse. But he didn't think this body would go any further.

Step.

Step-step.

Step.

He stilled, feeling another presence filling the area with power. He stilled completely and waited for the light, breathless steps to come to a stop. They came to a stop right in front of his head, just short of stepping on his already injured skull. It took more effort then it should have to lift his head up to see who else had come to challenge him.

His eyes narrowed as he spotted Krayon. The only words that were able to get past his lips were a rasp.

Krayon laughed jovially, clapping his hands together as he looked down at the boy. He stepped back slightly, just outside of the grasp of a weak hand that was going for his clean shoes. "Tut-tut." He shook his head sadly as he dropped his hands to his side. His lips stretched back in to a snarky smile.

"You know the deal." He informed the boy, his hands moving to rest on his hips as he looked down on him, staring in to glaring golden eyes. The boy had been through a lot, more then he had actually planned. But it all had worked out in the end, he wasn't going to take the chance of losing Eclipse this time. "Don't feel so bad." He tried to turn his smile in to something a little more friendly. "You defeated the second task. The third one was just out of your reach."

Krayon stepped back and swung loosely around with a chuckle, "I am the third task. You had no chance of defeating the glorious me." He spoke down to the boy, as if the thought of him being defeated by a baby demon was only the stuff of dreams. The boy was giving him a mutinous expression, but Krayon didn't care much for it.

He stepped back to the boy and crouched down, roughly grabbing the boy's chin and jerking him forward a little. His predatory grin was back, and Krayon laughed in his face. "Remember, the only one at fault is you!" He found it intensely amusing, did the little baby demon think he'd fight fair with Eclipse on the line?

"As on the conditions of our pact. Eclipse is mine." Hatred literally oozed off of the boy.

"And you're never to wake up." Krayon tightened his grip on the boy's chin, laughing. He was never going to wake up and as long as his body lived, the Raenef line would be put on halt once again. "I'm going to keep you here. In this dream land of mine." He caressed the boy's face. "I'll give you a life time of horrors and then some."

He caught a weak hand that tried to hit him, grasping the boy firmly by the wrist. "I'm have you clawed and ripped and maimed—but I'll never let you die." He cooed, oh no, he wasn't after his life. Raenef could keep it for however long he wanted to. He crushed the wrist in his hand and got a guttural, choking howl for his efforts.

He dropped the bloody boy, shaking the blood from his gloves with a laugh as he stood.

He paused when a hand slammed down on to his boot and the boy's fingers dug in to the soft material as if they were claws. Krayon was amused, was there still a fight left in his pathetic body? He'd have to watch the boy try and survive this place just for pure entertainment if there was.

"I'm… .. I'm not… done." The boy choked out, sounding like an eighty year old smoker. His voice, harsh and deep, did not belong to a child and Krayon took malicious glee in the sound. The boy's reddened, burnt face twisted in to a matching, malicious grin and his eyes glinted. Krayon felt a chill suddenly go down his spine as he noticed the sudden chill that appeared in the clearing.

Golden eyes…

The boy's eyes were supposed to be green. Why did they change?

"I'll kill you!" The boy roared, lurching up and grabbing on to Krayon to use the other's body to haul himself on to his feet. His voice, terrible and twisted and furious echoed in the clearing around them. "I'll kill you and take us both down! If I have to die!"

"If it has to end like this, I'll take you and the child with me!"

"We'll all die together!"

Krayon clawed at the hands twisted up in his superfluous clothing as the boy dropped open his burnt mouth and started to scream. It started out hoarse and animal-like before rising suddenly in pitch and Krayon clawed as his ears started to ring from the sound. He clawed but for some reason the hands wouldn't let go. The soft whites and blue lights of the spell were gathering around them now and he had. To. Get. Away.

He couldn't get away until the brat was off of him. He couldn't teleport away until he was off, otherwise the scream would follow him to safety and destroy him.

Krayon's scream went unheard underneath the boy's inhuman shriek and Krayon broke away…

And he teleported as the attack reached its climax.

Krayon dropped to the ground in his castle, hands clamped over his ears and screaming even if the only thing he could hear was a ringing that never ended.

White light flashed outside and the castle shook.

The shaking went on for several minutes before it ended. The castle had withstood the Scream of the Soul. Krayon dimly noted that as he felt his throat move in a whimper even if he couldn't hear it. He couldn't hear anything but that blasted ringing.

If there was anything left of that child, he was going to make it suffer dearly for this.

He struggled to his feet and moved to his chambers. He needed to recover. He would recover before collecting his prize.

Eclipse is mine.

A/N : Well.. that concludes this chapter. Its been one of the shorter chapters that I've written in a while, hope no one minds it. There will be one more chapter after this that will stand as the epilogue for this story. And then I'll be moving on to the sequal for it (I know a lot of people want that one done). So, enjoy the story as it comes to a close. I'll be revamping whats already written in the sequal. So, review and tell me if you liked this one opposed to the old version of the story, so on and so forth. Hope you enjoyed it.